Sallie Schaaf Borrink
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Here’s a short little chat to encourage you today. Make the most of where you are right now and shine the light of Christ.
Mentioned in the chat:
For more encouragement, see this category: Faithful Christian Living in Difficult Times
You will find this in the playlist below under “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.”
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There’s a lesson for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional (2e) children in this video. As I’ve said many times: Gifted Children Don’t Know Life Any Other Way.
I’ve written extensively about parenting a gifted/2e child if you would like to keep reading after you watch the video.
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{A Psalm of praise.} Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
KJV
Photo by Trung Nguyen: Pink Flowering Plant
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I finally took a few hours last evening to watch I Remember Mama. I’ve been in the process of building up my DVD library these past few years and ordered a copy when it came so highly recommended by a few different bloggers. I purchased the DVD over two years ago, but had not taken the time to sit down and watch it. Now that I’ve done so, I need to watch it again!
It’s a memorable 1946 black and white movie about a Norwegian family in San Francisco circa 1910. Based on the book Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it was also a very successful play before appearing on the big screen.
The film features Irene Dunn as Mama and a very young Barbara Bel Geddes as Katrin (who tells the story). It begins with Katrin telling us:
For long as I could remember, the house on the Larkin Street Hill had been home. Papa and Mama had both been born in Norway but they came to San Francisco because Mama’s sisters were here, all of us were born here. Nels, the oldest and the only boy, my sister Christine and the littlest sister Dagmar; but first and foremost, I remember Mama.
I don’t want to give away too much of the story as it takes some twists and turns I didn’t expect. Interestingly, there are no faith or religious elements in the story. It would make for a thought-provoking discussion with teens regarding how certain topics are approached when there is no lens of Christian faith through which to see them. But if you enjoy a warm, thoughtful, and humorous story about a loving family, then you will want to check it out.
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Learning about astronomy is great fun for children because it includes interesting topics such as the sun, moon, planets, and more. This collection of astronomy printables, books, and activities includes a wide variety of learning activities. They will all help you put together a fun learning theme.
If learning with themes is new to you, check out my post on How to Easily Create a Themed Unit Study.
Unit Study Planner: As you read through the ideas in this post, you can start making a list of what you want to include for your themed study. Include only the activities that make sense for your children and your family’s goals. Use the Unit Study Planning Pages.
Astronomy KWL: I suggest you start with an Astronomy KWL. Your child tells you what she knows (or thinks she knows) about the topic, what she wants to know, and (at the end) what she has learned. KWLs are a great way to document your child’s learning, especially if you use a more relaxed approach to homeschooling.
Depending on the age of your child, you may want to record her answers on this sheet yourself rather than asking her to do it. The important thing is the content of what she’s saying, not whether or not she can write it down. If writing will slow her down, let her dictate her answers to you.
Non-Fiction: If you are looking for some informative books to add to your astronomy study, here are a few. (As always, please review them ahead of time to make sure they align with your family’s viewpoint.)
Picture Books: If you are looking for some fun picture books, here are a few.
Choose several spelling words that are appropriate for your child’s ability. If you don’t do formal spelling, you can use this list for vocabulary discussion.
For fun, create a word search using words from the word list above using the Word Search Template.
If you are interested in learning lots of fascinating facts about astronomy, these fun fact cards are available in my printables shop. There are many fun ways to use them which I explain here.
Use this Facts About Graphic Organizer Worksheet as a way to keep track of important facts or your favorite fun facts you learn about astronomy.
This Astronomy Copywork coordinates with the fun fact cards. This copywork set includes both print and cursive in three versions.
Our Favorite Star Gazing Tools: Our family enjoys stargazing and has invested in equipment so we can see even more when we go outside at night.
You can see our favorite stargazing tools here on Amazon as well as below.
Comparing Things in Astronomy: Complete a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two things in space such as:
Here are several creative ideas to add to your learning unit.
Write A Biography: Write a short biography about a favorite person in the field of astronomy at some time in history. Use the Write a Biography (Early Elementary) Worksheets or Write a Biography (Upper Grades) Worksheets. Illustrate with a portrait drawing or print a picture from online. Again, feel free to have your child dictate to you if the act of writing would be too much. The content is the important thing!
Postage Stamp: Design a postage stamp to commemorate an important event or person in the field of astronomy.
Field Trip Ideas: Have fun exploring astronomy by going on a field trip to someplace like a:
Make a record of your field trip with this page from the Unit Study Activity Pack.
Acrostic Poem: Choose a person or event from the field of astronomy. Create an acrostic poem about him/her or the event.
Travel Brochure: Create a travel brochure for something related to astronomy.
Newspaper Article: Pretend you could interview someone related to the study of astronomy. Who would you choose? Write down 3-5 questions you would ask. Then write a newspaper article with what you think their answers would be using this page in the pack.
Astronomy List It: How many astronomy words can you come up with? Keep a list as you are studying or use this printable from the Unit Study Activity Pack as a final activity to review everything you’ve learned.
Write a letter to your favorite astronomer. Use one of these Write a Letter Worksheets.
If your family would like to memorize some Bible verses related to the stars and other heavenly bodies, here are a few to consider.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 19:1Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.
Psalm 148:2-4He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
Psalm 147:3-5When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:3-5He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars.
He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.
Job 9:7-10
If you are a member of Schoolhouse Teachers, you can also utilize their extensive materials in Everyday Astronomy.
Have fun exploring!
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Themed unit studies are a great learning tool for homeschool families. They are adaptable and work well with different philosophies such as delight-directed learning, relaxed homeschooling, and Charlotte Mason. You can customize each unit study to exactly what your family needs because they offer flexibility and personalization options. Unit studies are also fun when you want something a little different in your routine such as celebrating a holiday or season.
Best of all, it does not have to be complicated to create a unit study.
Many homeschooling families are naturally inquisitive and enjoy learning when something piques their interest. They might not even realize they are doing unit studies without thinking about it formally! So putting a bit of a plan in action and keeping records is simply the next step. In this post, I will more fully explain what a unit study is and the easy steps to plan one.
At the end of this post is an ever-growing list of the unit study posts currently on my website. You can also see the unit study ideas posts that aren’t complete unit studies, but offer lots of learning ideas. If you look on the Tags page, you will discover many unit study themed tags on a variety of topics.
My shop is arranged so it is easy to find themed printables for your unit study. Go to All Learning Themes to see an easy-to-navigate listing of the 45 topics included in my shop or just click the graphic below.
A themed unit study is a collection of books, printables, and activities around a learning theme or topic. Sometimes also called thematic learning, students learn a variety of subjects around one topic. A unit study purist would expect every subject to be taught around the theme, but I’m not a purist so my definition is a bit broader.
Depending on the age of your children, a unit study can be as simple as a few books, some printables, and a couple of activities that you do over one week. It can also be something far more complicated that lasts for weeks or even a few months for much older students who are particularly passionate about a subject. Unit studies can work well when there are multiple ages present because a family can all focus on one topic, but do activities and reading that are age appropriate.
Unit studies do NOT have to be complicated. I’ve seen the amazing photos of what some families do – homemade costumes, extensive food feasts, staged plays, etc. Those are NOT required to do a quality unit study that will help your children learn.
Do what works for you and your children, not what another mom on Pinterest or Instagram is doing.
It’s far better to do a simple unit study and expose your children to the information than do nothing because you don’t have the skills, time, or money to pull off something amazing and over-the-top.
There are many things you can add to a unit study and so I think the temptation is to plan too much. It doesn’t have to be complicated, especially for younger children. The must-have elements of a unit study would include the following:
Really, that’s it. You need a topic, a few learning goals, a timeline, good books, a few printables, and some activities. The types of printables and activities you add in will depend on your family. If you live in a state with demanding record keeping, then you will want some kind of final assessment or project to demonstrate what your children have learned. (You can also do this if you live in a state that doesn’t require it, but it isn’t necessary.)
If you would like a form to use while planning, check out my Unit Study Planning Pages.
Choose a highly engaging theme the first few times you do unit studies. You want to focus on being successful with this way of learning and getting your kids to buy in that this is a fun way to learn. It is a fun way to learn, but an overambitious mom can turn something fun into too much work and too much stress. Keep it simple, highly-engaging, and fun!
So choose a theme that your children will enjoy and embrace whole-heartedly.
Set a few reasonable goals for your children such as:
There is no right or wrong answer. The goals simply give you some guideposts along the way while you are planning and learning. They will also reassure you when you reach the end of the unit study that you accomplished what you set out to do.
A KWL can be a great tool at this stage. See this post where I explain them: Using A KWL In Your Homeschool Unit Study.
Decide how long you want your unit study to last. How long will it take to meet your goals and have fun along the way as you learn? A week? Two weeks? A month? Will you do only your unit study for that week? Or will you devote an hour a day to it? Two hours a day?
Think through what is realistic for your family. Less is often more so if you are just starting out and your children are younger, begin with something simple and short.
It’s also important to plan in some flexibility. If you choose a topic your children really embrace, they might want to do far more than you have planned. If they are excited about learning, let them run with it!
Unit studies are created using living books, not textbooks. Look for quality living books in both fiction and non-fiction. I would definitely include picture books in this unless your kids are much older. Picture books are an effective way to learn throughout elementary school.
When you are preparing for your unit study, look to see what you might want to use from the library. Check out a group of library books around your theme, ordering them ahead of time if needed.
When Caroline was younger, we had a huge book basket in the learning room that was always filled with library books. I encourage you to have an easily accessible book basket in a cozy place so your children are tempted often to stop and pull out a book. Putting books on a shelf or keeping them in a library bag generally won’t entice children the same way a book basket will when they can easily see the covers.
I think it’s always good to have books in your own home library as well so I encourage you to invest in at least a few books each time you do a different thematic study. Over time you will develop a solid home library for all of your children. We have an only child so it would be easy to decide that it’s not worth it to buy lots of books because she is the only one who will use them. We bought them anyways. Access to books is one of the most important things you can give your child and I didn’t want my daughter to miss out just because there was no one else to use them after her to make the purchase more “worthwhile” or justifiable. So I encourage you to find ways to steadily add to your family library.
You will see when you look through my themed unit study posts and unit study idea posts, that there are so many different kinds of activities you can add to a unit study. This is just a sampling of ideas.
The important thing is to limit the number you choose, select ones that fit well with the topic, and choose things your children will enjoy.
It’s important to keep some kind of a written record of your unit study. This is especially true if you live in a state with legal homeschool requirements. There are many ways you can do this such as:
Now for the really good news! I have lots of unit study activity ideas right here on my site. I’ve created these unit study posts to help you easily find highly engaging printables, books, and activities.
So I hope you will take the time to look through the unit studies on my site. You can look through the videos, books, printables, activities, and so on in each unit study. Then you can choose the ones that work best for your family.
Here is a list of the unit study posts on my site.
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Art: The prophet Jeremiah from cupola of Basilica Collegiata di San Sebastiano by Pietro Paolo Vasta (1745)
This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,
nor the strong man in his strength,
nor the wealthy man in his riches.
But let him who boasts boast in this,
that he understands and knows Me,
that I am the LORD,
who exercises loving devotion,
justice and righteousness on the earth—
for I delight in these things,”
declares the LORD.
The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB
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